”For every life, there must be a story to tell.” The most interesting words you ever said to me. Our life together has more than one. Every time I leave, a book is closed and a new one awaits to be written. We never know when, we never know how, we never know ‘if’, at all. Although we are always longing to see the future together, we always lived by the day. Never really preparing for it, but always worrying about tomorrow. Overcoming the 5.000 miles between us was never the hardest part. It were the 5.000 cultural differences that kept separating our hearts even if we were close. Never fully understanding each other, we found ourselves trapped in an endless argument about what is right and what is wrong. And we took on too much of the world’s problems, making the happy times we shared together to always be overshadowed by other peoples’ grief. Our ideal to make the world a little less crude for those who need it most, made love a little less enchanting for the two of us. Bittersweet, and so intoxicating at the same time.

Coming from different backgrounds and having two completely different life stories to tell, we never knew how to melt our overanxious hearts together. Now that tomorrow has come, and the 5.000 miles between us seem to be the new story of our life, it is time we learn to understand. My heart gets heavy at the thought that you, having just found a new family, spend your days in loneliness after having lost so much in your life. The world’s selfishness, greed, and hatred keep us both confined to our own lives. Leaving us with only few possibilities, to share our lives. But how can we blame others for their unjust feelings, when you and I both know how hard it is to overcome them?

If we could take a peek into our future, we would know what matters most. On days like these, we would surely say ‘love’. But days like these pass by, and the next day’s reality keeps catching up on us. We are both an undeniable part of the system, like two different rotating parts of the same machine. My part, as it is attached to the world surrounding me, is grinding its way into an all encompassing materialism, despair, conflict and betrayal. Yours, as it is attached to the world surrounding you, is finding its way out. We have known how the world works long since. The days on which we knew to escape the rotating order of the world, were the best of ‘our life’. We have tasted the sweetness of freedom. But we chose to be shackled by the order of the world. We are stuck in the western ratrace like common prisoners. Are we fighting to stay part of that machine, or are we fighting to get out? It is up to us to decide which story we want our lives to tell.

Our new book awaits to be written. Although we do not know when and we do not know how, we do know that it can be, after all. I don’t know when and I surely don’t know how, but my heart is sure it wants to be with you. For every life there must be a story to tell. The most interesting stories are those complex ones, with a lot of high ups and very low lows, but with a happy ending after all. Let’s make sure that, in the future, we will be able to say that that is the story of our life. Because you know me and I know you, because you love me and I love you, after all.

•